Happy Monday

This morning I was brutally struck down with a vicious bug--the cleaning bug! Instead of promptly getting dressed and such, I tidied up the living room. A lot of mornings I feel the urge to wash and put away dishes too. I wonder if it's a subconscious delay tactic, because really, it's a little strange that I would actually *want* to clean up!

I must say that I would really be in favor of a four-day work week every week. Last week, it was so nice to have a whole extra day to relax and then go back to school on a day later than Monday.

That said, it was a pretty nice day today. For writing, I had them read an article about our social studies topic. In their groups they took turns reading aloud to each other and then they answered the questions together. It went pretty well, nearly everyone was on task and there was a good amount of cooperation and accountable talk. I thought about having each group write up some kind of chart or something too--maybe a sentence about one of the questions or something. But as it was we ran out of time, so there was just a whole-group share out. I was pleased with it though.

I started an extra sciencey thing--planting seeds. I found some flowers and beans and wee little plastic pots at Target, and last week each group chose which seeds they wanted and put them in some soil. I also 'planted' a few batches in clear plastic containers, because I remember doing that in middle school and it was neat because you can see everything the seed does. The kids are already really excited about them--during the day they kept going over to exclaim over the growth, and I had to keep ushering them back to their seats. I was very glad to see their excitement, though. :)

So one of my favorite kids said some funny things today. I'll call him Dimples, because, well, you can probably guess. He smiles a lot and pretty good at focusing and working hard, but can get really hyper, especially in the afternoon. Sometimes I go up to him and say, "Do you need a wiggle?" and he says yes, and I grab his shoulders and wiggle them back and forth. Anyway, today during the end of the craziness, he came up to me and goes, "You know, a piece of bacon looks like Long Island." And then later he was bouncing around at his table (literally), I said severely, "Take a. chill. pill." He goes, "I need one!" I replied, "I know." Another kid piped up, "Take two." Ha!